IV World Games of Young Compatriots in Kazan

From May 13 to 19, 2018, Kazan hosted the IV World Games of Young Compatriots. On Sunday, May 13, the team of young athletes representing Luxembourg departed from Findel airport. It included students of the Kalinka Russian School:

May 14, the first day of the event, was marked by the opening ceremony, as well as several excursions. Guests of the capital of Tatarstan saw Kazan Victory Park and the monument to the famous Tatar poet Musa Cälil. Kids got lots of lasting impressions!

On May 16, the team participated in the Visiting Card Contest. Kids were searching for a lively and original presentation, that's why they got an idea to tell the legend of Melusina (a fairy tale character known to all Luxembourgers), accompanied by music and dance prepared by young gymnasts (one of them is Lisa Yampolskaia, the very first student of the Kalinka Russian School). Ksenia Kuptsova (Lastochki) voiced the legend. You can see the video of this presentation here.

Together with teacher Svetlana Kleshkova, children held five rehearsals, honing words, intonation, gestures. «We wanted to talk about a tiny country that can fit 28 times inside the Tatarstan territory, but is called the Grand Duchy, about the Russian roots of our prime minister, about Luxembourg's population that is a polyglot, about Luxembourg's ambitious plans for space exploration and much more, many other things», Svetlana Kleshkova said.

On May 17, kids visited a secondary school in Kazan to have a look at the learning process in Russia, as well as to learn about the culture and history of Tatarstan. In the school's Museum of Science and Art they found a very interesting exhibition. After that, they took part in the Dialogues in Russian Intellectual Game. Young compatriots from Luxembourg checked their knowledge of the Russian culture, literature, history, geography and language. You can see the video here.

Our students showed very good results. Sevda Reding finished 17th out of 28 competitors, and Pablo Ortiz Bogdanov finished 46th out of 92. We congratulate our chess players, who were among the youngest participants and faced very strong opponents!

During the swimming competitions on May 15-17, Elyan Viguier finished 25th out of 59 competitors in the 50-metre freestyle and 12th out of 40 in the 200-metre freestyle, which allowed him to enter the semifinals for this discipline, where he improved his time. In relay races, the Luxembourg team finished 14th out of 17 participating countries in the 4х100 metres relay and 13th out of 20 in the 4х50 metres relay. Please find here more information from the swimming protocols.

The IV World Games of Young Compatriots brought together 650 children from 61 countries. The organizers of the event were the Ministry of Sports and Ministry of Education and Science, Rossotrudnichestvo, the United Russia Russian Political Party, all-Russia Federation of School Sports with the support of Tatarstan government. The Games allow kids to interact with their peers from different countries and to remember their native language, the culture and history of Russia, as well as their roots.